Hull City owner Russell Bartlett has traded £4m in loans with club

Hull City have loaned millions of pounds to the club's owner, the Essex-based property investor Russell Bartlett, since he took over in 2007, including at least £2.9m which went towards him buying the club in the first place. In total, the club has loaned £4.4m to Bartlett's holding companies, paid £560,000 in management fees, and at least £1m to Bartlett as a salary. Until early this year, he had loaned City just £1m in return, but following a financial warning from the club's auditors, Deloitte, he has recently redressed the balance by lending the club a further £4m. Bartlett, who has offices in Shenfield, Essex, bought City from Adam Pearson and Pearson's financial partner Peter Wilkinson, for a total of £13m. They had steered the club from administration and League Two to the Championship and a new stadium, with no debt. After he bought the club, one of Bartlett's holding companies then immediately borrowed £3.4m from the Royal Bank of Scotland so that he could buy the lease on the KC Stadium. The lease was mortgaged to RBS, with Bartlett personally guaranteeing the loan. The football club themselves, still then in the Championship, then loaned £3.2m to that Bartlett holding company. Bartlett's group company accountant, Andrew Redman, confirmed this week on Bartlett's behalf that City paid that money out to help Bartlett meet his instalments to Pearson and Wilkinson for buying the club. Redman said: "£2.9m of the £3.2m paid by Hull City AFC to [Bartlett's company] Tiger Holdings Limited formed part of the purchase consideration due to the previous owner." The KC Stadium company loaned a further £1.2m to another of Bartlett's holding companies, described in the 2007-08 accounts as "financial assistance," making £4.4m altogether coming out, but Redman did not explain what that £1.2m payment was for. After Hull won promotion to the Premier League in Bartlett's first season in charge, the former chairman, Paul Duffen, said Bartlett had "provided the funding" to get the Tigers up. It could have been inferred that Bartlett had put in significant investment. However, he had not; the club financed player signings and an expanded wage bill by making a £10m loss that season, and £5m overall left the club to Bartlett and his companies, the two payments totalling £4.4m, and £560,000 in management fees. The club, on promotion, then borrowed £22m from a bank, Investec, secured against Premier League TV money, personally guaranteed by Bartlett. That year, Bartlett's company, R3 Investment Group, loaned only £1m, to the KC Stadium company. More recently, the club's auditors, Deloitte, warned that City face significant financial shortfalls whether they stay up or are relegated, which represents a "material uncertainty" regarding whether the club can "continue as a going concern". After that warning, Bartlett then provided the club with a £4m loan. That took Bartlett and his companies to about even in money loaned in and lent or paid out since he took over. In addition to the payments made to Bartlett's companies, the 2007-08 accounts for the stadium holding company stated that Bartlett personally was owed £1m. That, Redman explained, was Bartlett's salary. "There are no payments from the companies to RD Bartlett other than salary," he said. The highest paid director recorded in the club's more recent accounts, for the following year, to 31 July 2009, had a salary package of £1.035m. Redman would not confirm whether that director was Bartlett. "Salary information is confidential," he said. David Conn's full story will be in Wednesday's Guardian and online on his Inside Sport blog from 7am